With this in mind, I decided to do some testing on Event Horizon. I spent some time looking for large and relatively solid objects to hit, and finally settled on the EH 1.0 carcass with a large chunk of scrap aluminum in it to make it heavier.
I found that running into EH 1.0 slowly with the weapon at full speed produced only small impacts, which would not be sufficient in an actual match, so I rammed it at full speed. The EH 1.0 frame flew three to four feet, which is much more in line with the power that I want from the EH 2 weapon (Sorry, no video, I can't drive and take video at the same time).
Upon initial inspection, EH 2 appeared not to have sustained damage in the impact, but after looking closer, I noticed that one of the teeth (1/4-20 flat head cap screws) had been completely ripped out of the 1/4" thick aluminum drum. Also, the drum did not spin freely anymore, and the wires for the motor had been partly sucked inside of the drum.
I took apart the drum.
... and was confronted with a scene of absolute destruction. The motor mounting plate was completely deformed, and the wires for the motor (all three of them) had been completely sheared off. Interestingly, all of the screws that hold the motor mounting plate to the hub were missing, and the threads on the hub were completely intact, showing no signs of an impact. Thus, we reach the title of this post: As far as I can tell, the screws fell out at some earlier point, meaning that the drum motor had been solely held in place by its wires. When the drum hit the EH 1.0 frame, it seems that the motor flexed somewhat and the mounting plate caught on the inside of the drum somehow, bending the plate and shearing the wires. Using loctite and/ or jam nuts might have prevented this failure. Thankfully, this is an easy fix since I have another motor.
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| Yes, that hole was round once. |
As a backup, I am also going to start development of a hub motor using the parts from the broken motor. More on this later.
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